This is the first of two Public Lands Blog posts on the public value of state trust lands and how such lands might be brought into public ownership. Part 1 is a national overview, while Part 2 will focus on state trust lands in Oregon.
Map 1. This map of state trust lands in the eleven western states tends to exaggerate visually the actual size of the state trust land parcels and thereby their extent. Use this to get a sense of location, but see Table 2 for the actual extent. Source: State Trust Lands in the West, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Every state admitted to the United States since and including Ohio in 1803 has received large land grants from the federal government. These state trust lands are owned by the states. Although they have public value and allow public access, they are not public lands. As populations in the American West increase, so does the tension between (1) maximizing profit (which coincides with maximizing the degradation of nature) for the benefit of the trust lands’ beneficiaries and (2) the provision of conservation and other public values. This Public Lands Blog post and the next argue that the state trust lands should be converted to public lands to conserve their public values.
History of State Trust Land Grants
When Ohio achieved statehood in 1803, the federal government granted it some lands, mostly, but not exclusively, for the purpose of public education (today known as K–12). The General Land Ordinance of 1785 had established a survey system that imposed a grid of 1-square-mile sections over public lands. One section (1 square mile) out of every township (36 square miles) was granted to Ohio in 1803 (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Early states admitted to the union from Ohio onward received section 16 of every township as a land grant; later states (including Oregon) also received section 36. Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico received sections 2 and 32 as well. Source: State Trust Lands in the West, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Over the ensuing decades, new states began to each get two sections. Later, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona were granted four sections of each township upon statehood (Table 1). With more land came more restrictions as Congress tired of states squandering their land grants. (For example, Nevada retains only 3,000 acres of the more than 2.7 million acres granted to it at statehood in 1864 by the federal government for education.) Because of such restrictions, the newer western states of New Mexico and Arizona retain much of their originally granted land.
Table 1. History of state land grants in the United States. Notice that Oklahoma received only two sections, not four, per township. Prior to statehood Oklahoma was called the Indian Territory. Systemic racism? Source: State Trust Lands in the West, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
By 1959, the deal had changed. Hawaii had an existing trust from previously royal lands, and the federal government gave all the lands it owned, save for military installations, to the new state. Alaska received the most federal lands because as the largest state it has the greatest number of townships, and it was granted four sections per township. Upon statehood, Alaska was granted 110 million acres, with only 1.2 million earmarked for schools. Before statehood, Alaska had been granted 1 million acres to fund mental health services (another story).
State Trust Lands Today
Table 2 shows the extent of state land grants remaining today, revenue amounts, and major sources of revenue. Chart 1 details the revenue sources.
Chart 1. Revenues from and uses of state trust lands in the West. Source: State Trust Lands in the West, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
As can be seen, state trust lands have contributed low returns to most state governments. The most notable exceptions are New Mexico’s trust lands, which are awash in fossil fuels, and Arizona’s trust lands, which are next to growing cities and therefore quite developable.
The Conservation Value of State Trust Lands
What the tables and chart above do not depict is that most state trust lands have significant conservation and other public values. In fact, the public value of state trust lands is often higher than the financial value. For this reason, Oregon and other states should divest themselves of much, if not all, of their state trust lands by selling them out of their trust status and into true public land status.
Acquisition by the federal government for conservation purposes would aid the United States in achieving “30x30,” or 30% of the nation’s lands and water in protected conservation status by 2030 on our way to 50x50 (but that is a future) Public Lands Blog post.
My previous Public Lands Blog post, “What to Do with Stranded State Trust Lands in Federal Conservation Areas?” urges the federal government to buy all state trust lands surrounded by federal public lands. It’s a start. States should also find funds to convert state trust lands to public lands.
Primary Source
Peter W. Culp, Andy Laurenzi, Cynthia C. Tuell, and Alison Berry. State Trust Lands in the West: Fiduciary Duty in a Changing Landscape (Updated). Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2015.